This invention relates to Office furniture, particularly to lateral file cabinets.
Lateral filing cabinets are those that have a drawer and that generally file side to side. Most lateral file drawers slide out while the cabinet referred to in this invention rocks or rotates forward. In the closed position a standard file jacket can be thought of as lying on its side; in the open position it rests on its back. A lateral filing cabinet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,785,015 issued to Higberg.
In the embodiment disclosed therein, the drawer is secured in the open position by an opening on one linkage arm and an engagement projection on a second linkage arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,875,011 also issued to Higberg teaches a latch and lock mechanism for keeping lateral file drawers closed. However, neither of the two teachings teach any means of securing a lateral file cabinet door in the closed position absent a latch and lock mechanism on each door of the lateral file cabinet.
It would be advantageous to have a cabinet hinge that secured each file drawer closed in the absence of a lock on each drawer. This would separate the functions of keeping the drawers closed and locking the cabinet. The cabinet could be locked by the use of one gang lock to lock all drawers in the cabinet.
Such securing mechanism would advantageously incorporate the feature of slowing a closing door before it was fully closed, thereby avoiding a sudden stop.